JD.com Is Latest Chinese Company to Soar In U.S. Trading Debut

Investors are going shopping for JD.com Inc., the newly public e-commerce juggernaut, adding to a mostly buoyant market for Chinese companies listing in the U.S.

Shares of the Beijing-based company jumped in their trading debut Thursday, after JD.com’s initial public offering priced at $19 a share late Wednesday, above the company’s forecast.

The stock opened at $21.75 Thursday morning and then rose further in the initial minutes of trading. The shares were recently at $22.45, up 18% from their offer price.

IPOs by Chinese companies listing on U.S. exchanges have gotten a mostly positive response from investors the past few months. Through Wednesday, four of the seven such companies were up since their debuts, led by Leju Holdings Ltd.’s 26% advance.

To be sure, some of these deals were priced to move. Leju cut its IPO pricing expectations hours before getting the deal done. Twitter Inc.-like Weibo Corp.—up 19% through Wednesday—priced its debut at the low end of its marketed range and sold 16% fewer shares than planned.

In general, it’s been tough sledding for new issues in the U.S. lately. The Renaissance Capital IPO ETF, which tracks shares of newly listed companies, is down 8.2% the past three months.

For U.S. stock investors, JD.com is arguably the biggest play on growth in e-commerce in the world’s second-largest economy. The company is the largest online direct sales company in China by transaction volume, according to its IPO prospectus, with a business model similar to Amazon.com Inc.

Rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., by contrast, runs marketplaces where myriad merchants sell their goods to consumers or businesses. Alibaba is also planning to list in the U.S. later this year.